BODY GRAPHICS I NETWORK FOR CONTEMPORARY DANCE AND PERFORMANCE

The Body Graphics Network for Contemporary Dance & Performance is a project that aims to foster contemporary dance and performance and it’s integration into the art scene in Bulgaria. It was established by the Austrian collective SweatKollektor and started off with the Body Graphics – Festival for Contemporary Dance and Performance in 2016 in Pernik and Sofia, created in collaboration with Bulgarian organisations and institutions. The play ground of Body Graphics has now moved to Plovdiv from where it seeks to become a focal point for the contemporary dance and performance scene, establishing a stronger community that can represent regional performance art, in sight of Plovdiv 2019. A more concentrated local dance and performance scene can support its expansion and create a more profound understanding for the art form in the public view.

Over the following years Body Graphics wants to exhibit a variety of different and new facets and expressions of the art form and visualise dance cross-disciplinary on as many stages as possible, in new and unexpected places and forms through a diversity of artistic departure points. The platform shall experiment with and flourish the exchange of new working methods, ideas, structures and forms. Performances shall happen in the theatre, in urban spaces and also move into cross-space domains. Future programs will expand the platforms focus from the scope of performance to digital art, zooming into transmedial creation, examining different concepts and settings of body and technology.

The networking platform shall conflate dance and performance artists with the general art scene in the city, supporting the exchange in between and equality of the art forms. Body Graphics shall be a pool for art happenings and gatherings, festivals, workshops, classes and productions and seeks to further promote the critical and theoretical involvement with the regional art scene and it’s political and economical position in Plovdiv and Bulgaria.

BODY GRAPHICS I FESTIVALS

Reserve the date!

Body Graphics festivals shall enable the platform to expand it’s threads to Bulgaria and abroad, supporting the international networking and representation of the Bulgarian dance and performance scene.

Having started off successfully in 2016, Body Graphics wants to continue hosting an annual festival for contemporary dance and performance. In the first edition the festival experienced a vital exchange between international and national artists, presented a variety of renowned protagonists from the Bulgarian and international dance scene and offered an insight into a diversity of approaches to dance and performance art.
For the following editions the scope will expand to the integration of digital art into the realm of dance and the art of the human body. A small format festival introducing cross-disciplinary productions with the focal point on interactive performance will take place in July 2018 under the name Body Graphics – Le Petit. A three-day-program shall feature performances, workshops and invite to an art-theoretical and -critical discourse.
The next large scale festival shall take place in the year of the cultural capital Plovdiv in 2019. It will draw from the concepts of the first Body Graphics festival and extend the formats to technology and digital media as the name Body Graphics Part II – Body, Art & Digital Media indicates. A collaboration with the internationally renowned NODE-Festival taking place annually in Frankfurt is in the process of planning.

The bodygraphics networking program is funded by the Austrian Embassy.

BODY GRAPHICS I LE PETIT (2018)

BODY GRAPHICS I DANCE, BODY AND DIGITAL MEDIA (2019)

BODY GRAPHICS I MOBILE JOUR FIXE

From November till December 2017 we will start the first series of the Mobile Jour Fixe. Regular meetings are to be advancing the cross-discipline networking within the art scene residing in Plovdiv.

Once a week one artist will invite to an open-door-evening, gathering artists from around the city, providing an insight into his or her current work. Subsequently we will open up a theoretical and critical discourse on the regional art scene. Taking place in the artists’ personal studios and ateliers, the “open university” format shall enable more recognition for the artists’ creations and work places and foster the communication in between each other. The open discussion will invite to look into the work theoretically and critically in respect of its artistic context. Opening up the working-process to the public will nourish the exchange of new methods, ideas and frameworks. Further, the open university will broach the issue of art in reference to its regional, political and economical position in Plovdiv. It will promote the equality of and exchange in between art forms. The Mobile Jour Fixe facilitates a setting for mutual support and expansion of a cross-discipline art network, which can help to establish oneself further as an artist in Plovdiv.

Inducing this year’s Mobile Jour Fixe we will set a focus on interactive performance, giving attention to transmedial creation. This will be emphasized in the interactive performance production "Autobodiography Part II – Body, Dance & Digital Media", a collaboration between the Austrian-Bulgarian performance collective SweatKollektor and internationally renowned Plovdiv based digital artist Petko Tanchev, and will culminate in a audio-visual-party organized by МЕЛФОРМАТОР. To check out the dates, go to "ARTISTS".

The bodygraphics networking program is funded by the Austrian Embassy.

This Thursday SweatKollektor & theSpace will kick off the first of five episodes of the Mobile Jour Fixe with an informal gathering in the art & culture space 'theSpace'. All artists and art-interested people from Plovdiv will be greeted with free drinks & snacks and given an insight into the new dance/performance-project Autobodiography Part II – Body, Dance & Digital Media" by the Austrian-Bulgarian performance collective SweatKollektor in collaboration with the renowned Plovdiv based digital artist Petko Tanchev from the collective МЕЛФОРМАТОР.It is the follow-up-project of last year's performance Autobodiography, created within the Derida-Dance-Center-residency-program.

Following an open discussion shall enable to gather a pool of information on how to design a possible future of the MOBILE JOUR FIXE. It shall enhance strengthening the network within artists in the city and foster mutual support and equality within the art genres.

After an instructive and constructive meeting with an inspiring group of people and the common goal of creating a community to encourage a network for performance art in Plovdiv, we launch the next meeting of the Mobile Jour Fixe on Saturday in "theSpace".
We will present ideas and thoughts compiled in the last meeting and await for growth of our tasks force to collectively proceed in our undertaking of creating a representative platform for performance art in the city. Join us and help with gathering more information and notions on how we can go on!

“THEATER OF RESPONSIBILITY” is an NGO, which aims to building an independent, international, theatre platform. Our mission is to create a network of artists and organisations which will unite them around the idea of the socially engaged theatre in all of its stage forms - conventional theatre, performance, clowning, campaigns, installations etc.
The organisation has several main goals: initiating annually theatre forums, including tours, workshops, lectures, and discussions; producing performances; initiating international partnerships between artistic and social organisations.
The main things, which we want to present through the language of stage art are the things with which we disagree, both personally and socially. “Theater of responsibility” wants to shed light at individuals, his/her personal story and transform it into a media – a media, which presents events and situations through the story of every individual and through the main opinion and statistics. Our focus is the troubled groups, marginal groups and people with special needs and also those who don’t fit into any of these groups and often get into situations, where the firsts speculate with their rights.
The responsibility is one of the distinctive values of the human, which gives him/her the power to change the reality by taking conscious, consistent actions. The refusal to take responsibility is an act of devolution when it comes to the function and the potential of our existence.
The social functions of the theatre and art in general are important for setting directions in which a society can go. In many situations, the state and the media refuse to recognise themselves as responsible institutions. In these cases, the theatre becomes the missing institution, which tries to find solutions to a specific problem. “Theater of responsibility” is an open platform for everyone who wants to point their artistic skills in the direction of telling their stand about the problems they see and offer an alternative to the reality in which we live.

Partnership concept
“Theater of responsibility” wants to attract as partners social organisations, pedagogues and humanitarian communities. The partnership between artists and specialists from different areas will contribute to the achievement of our goals and will also make people from different professions work together for an existential and social change.

An idea of a Plovdiv based poet to interact with performance and dance art. Ensuing, some of her works:

Melformator, Bodygraphics and The Space Plovdiv present an exceptional event in two parts, consisting of an interactive performance and dj party with interactive visuals. It will introduce into the project of establishing a network between digital and performance artists form Plovdiv.

A body is it's own universe, a microcosmos. Each life story is edged into the face of a person, is imprinted deep into the flesh of the body, the corporeal driving car for life. We will not illustrate biography, but let traces of biography speak while the process of creating. We are not seeking for rational memorial autobiography, but the sensitive, somatical biography, that is stored in the neurological and muscular memories. It makes the person the way she acts, thinks, moves, perceives and enters the world: the physical biography of the person that has led him or her to the present self - an automatically happening biography, the writing of biography through the moving author, the self, the „auto".

WE ARE LOOKING FOR FOUR ARTISTS TO LAUNCH THE FIRST SERIES OF THE MOBILE JOUR FIXE!

This will be an opportunity to embed your work and personal studio or atelier into the city’s art scene. In an open-door evening individuals or art collectives will invite artists from Plovdiv to introduce them into their current work. They will share the working-process and will be able to gain feedback through an open discussion on its art-specific, theoretical and political context. Following we want to induce the issue of art in reference to its regional, political and economical position in Plovdiv. In this framework we want to take the chance to gain a better inter-disciplinary network and communication within the people of Plovdiv’s art scene. Improving mutual support and work-connections can build a stable ground for emerging artists and present a stronger network in view of Plovdiv 2019.

If you are interested in hosting one of the five episodes of the Mobile Jour Fixe please WRITE US AN E-MAIL TO office@bodygraphics.bg. Please include your personal information, short description on your current work and how and why you would like to present it.

Bodygraphics will provide food & drinks for the evening, help with organisation and distribution and launch the open discussion.

SweatKollektor is an non-profit organization residing in Salzburg, Austria, with the aim of implementing transnational projects in the area of performance productions, installations, exhibitions, readings and other forms of aesthetic expression.

Goals of the organization are to support intercultural exchange, the development of artistic methods and practices and the support of young artists with limited access to governmental funding systems, with distinction on East European countries. A general objective is to build up an international network for the distribution and growth of performative art practices to raise awareness for new forms of aesthetically and physical expression. Currently the attention of the organization is on establishing partnerships in Bulgaria.

With festivals, workshops, laboratories, debates, conferences, and other forms of artistic, educational and non-formal gatherings, SweatKollektor seeks to decentralize the art scene from the metropoles to places that are yet underrepresented in arts & education. This enables young local artists to represent their artistic profile on national and international levels.

ArtArea is a nonprofit organization popularizing education in culture, artand ecology through the methods of art. Their activities are focused onestablishing an independent, alternativ art academy, the "AYA institute", whichshall facilitate education and development for young talents in the fields of culture and arts. The aim is to provide a platform for personal development in all diversity of artistic practices under the aspects of social backgrounds and cultural history.

Association ArtArea has been cooperating since 2009 with partners from Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Slovakia, Norway, Spain, Austria and France in implementing international projects and volunteering programs through the Erasmus+ EU funded program. Within the participation in „Youth in Action“ programs, ArtArea promotes the exchange of cultural heritage, traditions and values, addresses interculturallity and supports artistic and personal selfdevelopment.

The "Kunsthilfe Salzburg", was found to mentor and support jung talented artists from Austria, engage with and guide them mentally, practically, artistically and economically. The creative power of young art is being connected and linked to economy, education and social domains. The platform was being created by sponsors and entrepreneurs interested and engaged in art, meaningfully, in order to utilize and support future chances and perspectives together with the artists.

theSpace

theSpace is a gathering place where art, culture, and travels are celebrated. We seek to inspire and stir the soul’s love of creativity and encourage community participation from our visitors, our collaborators, and our patrons. theSpace is for everyone who strives to live an aesthetically beautiful life, greatly enriched by being a part of a collaborative circle of like-minded friends.

Contemporary Dance Classes I Workshops

A series of contemporary dance classes and workshops will be held in November and December in
theSpace, Raiko Daskalov 19, Plovdiv

We will work on anatomical fluidity and ease of movement, emphasising proper co-ordination and - organisation of the body. In different movement sessions we will explore the function of movement through somatic body techniques, foster strength and stamina through power-movements and groundwork and investigate into centering and rooting, freeing the movement of the extremities. Beginning with easy, going to complex choreographical structures, we will learn to adapt technique into homogene flow of movement in the frame of set composition and improvisation. Stretching and relaxation will be part of the classes to preserve healthy body and mind.

The level of the class will be adjusted to the participants.

This is a series of 8 dance classes and two 2-day-workshops led by dancers from the production of Autobodiography part II and dancers from Plovdiv. Facebook-events will notify you regularly about the upcoming dates.